[a][b][7] In the first documents where they appear, Ottone and his offspring declared that they abided by the Lombard law and acted in connection with other Milanese families of the noble upper class (capitanei).

[11] In 1134, Guido Visconti, son of Ottone, received from the abbot of Saint Gall the investiture of the court of Massino,[12] a strategic location on the hills above Lake Maggiore, near Arona.

In this position, the Della Torre began to clash with the Milanese noble families organized in their political party, the Societas Capitaneorum et Valvassorum, having the Visconti among the most prominent figures.

At the end of 1259, Oberto Pallavicino, a former partisan of Frederick II who got closer to the Guelph positions of the Della Torre, was appointed by the Milanese commune for five years as General Captain of the People.

His victory in the Battle of Cassano on 16 September 1259 against Ezzelino da Romano, formerly his ally on the Ghibelline side in the war of Frederick II against the Lombard communes, enhanced his position in Milan.

[31][27][32] In 1266, trying to take advantage of the favorable moment, the Della Torre advocated their cause against the Visconti in a consistory held by Pope Clement IV in Viterbo and attended by archbishop Ottone.

At the end of 1266, the German princes decided to support Conradin, the last Hohenstaufen member, to recover the domains in southern Italy lost to the Anjou house after the defeat of Benevento.

The reconciliation agreement with the Della Torre family, reached in December 1310 on the initiative of Henry VII, was attended by Matteo, his brother Uberto, and their cousin Ludovico, also known as Lodrisio.

He ruled for about eleven years, providing to his family the legal basis for the hereditary lordship over Milan and extending the territory under the Milanese influence against the traditional opponents of the Visconti: the Della Torre and Anjou dynasties allied with the Papacy.

Marco felt in disgrace and was killed by hitmen in 1329[42][43] During Azzone's rule, Lodrisio (the cousin of Matteo, who in 1310 attended the reconciliation with the Della Torre) raised against him, trying to revert the line of succession in favor of his own family.

On 5 May 1385, accompanied by his generals (Jacopo dal Verme, Antonio Porro, and Guglielmo Bevilacqua) and with a heavily armed escort, Gian Galeazzo moved from Pavia for an apparent pilgrimage journey to Santa Maria del Monte di Velate near Varese.

The people in the domains of Bernabò, firstly the Milanese, promptly submitted to Gian Galeazzo, an attitude widely attributed to their desire to abandon the ruthless regime under which they had been living.

[90][91] Under the rule of the Visconti, the government of the city of Milan underwent profound transformations while its territorial hegemony greatly extended, to suffer a crisis after the death of Gian Galeazzo.

The first Visconti claimed an absolute power (plenitudo potestatis) comparable to the one preserved to pope and emperor,[94][95] culminating with Bernabò, who openly considered their authorities irrelevant in his dominions.

[98][99] The expansion of the Visconti rule outside the Milanese diocese took advantage of the traditional importance of Milan in northern Italy, reinforced by the leading role played in the Lombard League during the wars against the Hohenstaufen emperors.

[101][102] Based on this favorable position, after the death of Henry VII in 1313, Matteo and his son Galeazzo managed to become lords of other cities in northern Italy: Bergamo, Tortona, Alessandria, Vercelli, and Piacenza.

During this first expansion phase, the Visconti continued to face the opposition of the Guelph League: the Papacy, the Anjou house (sovereigns in southern Italy), and the Della Torre family.

[117] Between 1390 and 1398, the attacks of Gian Galeazzo encountered the opposition of the local powers of northern and central Italy; wars against Florence and Mantua were ineffective and even led to the loss of Padua.

[99] The territorial unity of the Visconti state was heavily affected, and the Council of Regency, created to overcome the young age of Gian Galeazzo's sons, could not stem the dividing forces that resurfaced, causing the collapse of the system of government built by him.

[131] In 1134, Guido Visconti (one of the members of the primogeniture line) obtained from the abbot of Saint Gall the castle of Massino located in the Vergante region on the hills overlooking Lake Maggiore.

[150] Near the Milan Cathedral, at the time Santa Maria Maggiore church, Azzone erected a bell tower taller than any other building in the territories under his rule, even surpassing Cremona's Torrazzo.

In the Visconti territories on the western side of Lake Maggiore, family branches adapted existing fortifications or erected new castles in Castelletto sopra Ticino, Invorio, Massino, and Oleggio Castello.

[167][168] To locally mark their power, the Visconti erected fortifications in the territories where they extended their dominion (Bellinzona, Bergamo, Cassano d'Adda, Castell'Arquato, Cherasco, Galliate, Lecco, Legnano, Locarno, Lodi, Monza, Novara, Piacenza, Vercelli, Voghera, Vogogna).

[171] Two ambitious programs to divert the waters of rivers flowing toward enemy cities, Mantova e Padova, prompted Gian Galeazzo to build two dams at Valeggio sul Mincio and Bassano del Grappa.

[175] Visconti's coat of arms, the Biscione, marked the façade of minor Milanese churches under their patronage, making them recognizable today (San Cristoforo, Santa Maria Incoronata).

A poem written by the contemporary Dominican Stefanardo da Vimercate (Liber de gestis in civitate Mediolani) told the story of archbishop Ottone Visconti, culminating with his victory over the Della Torre in 1277.

[188] Bonino da Campione sculpted an equestrian statue of Bernabò, which was later placed on his sarcophagus in the San Giovanni in Conca church and decorated the tomb of his wife Regina della Scala; they are today preserved in the Sforza castle museum (Museo d'Arte Antica).

[189][190] The outstanding marble construction effort and the sculptural decorations characterizing the religious buildings initiated by Gian Galeazzo (Milan Cathedral and Pavia Charterhouse) continued in the following centuries.

[198][199] In 1368, the marriage ceremony of Violante Visconti to the son of the King of England and the subsequent nuptial banquet was attended by Petrarch, Jean Froissart, who had accompanied the bridegroom in his journey to Italy, and maybe Geoffrey Chaucer.

[202][201] The marriages of five daughters of Bernabò to German and Austrian princes (Antonia in Württemberg; Taddea, Maddalena, and Elisabetta in Bavaria; Viridis in Austria) are credited to have contributed to a culture transfer to the regions ruled by their husbands.